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| Tuesday, January 15 After making bid for Herzog, Sox hire Stanley Associated Press |
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BOSTON -- Former catcher and first baseman Mike Stanley was
hired by the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday as the team's bench coach.
Stanley, 38, played for the Red Sox from 1996 to 2000, hitting
73 homers with 254 RBI.
"He's a man that comes with a lot of respect and integrity not
only as a player but a person," Red Sox manager Joe Kerrigan said.
"He really will help us on both sides of the ball. Not only
offensively, but also he understands that game within a game that
goes on between a catcher and a pitcher."
In his 15 years in the majors, all in the American League,
Stanley had 187 homers, 702 RBI and a .270 batting average. In
addition to the Red Sox, he played for the Texas Rangers, the New
York Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Oakland Athletics.
Stanley was released by the Red Sox during the 2000 season. He
was picked up by Oakland for the rest of the year, but didn't play
last season.
There were no hard feelings over his departure from the Red Sox.
"That never even entered my mind," he said. "That was a couple
of years ago, as far as I'm concerned that's water under the
bridge."
Stanley's teams made the playoffs in five of his last six
seasons as a player.
In a 1999 division series between Boston and Cleveland, he
batted .500 (10-for-20) with two RBI and four runs scored. In the
23-7 Red Sox victory over the Indians in Game 4, Stanley became
just the fourth player in major league history to get five hits in
a postseason game.
With New York in 1993, Stanley became one of only 10 major
league catchers to hit .300 with at least 25 homers in the same
season. He finished that year with a .305 average, 26 home runs and
84 RBI. In the same season he led AL catchers in fielding
percentage (.996), homered in four straight games and hit three
grand slams in a span of three weeks.
Stanley was selected to the 1995 AL All-Star team.
A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Stanley attended the
University of Florida, where he was All-Southeastern Conference in
1982 and 1984 and a member of the SEC All-Academic Team in 1983.
The Red Sox originally offered the job to former major league
manager Whitey Herzog, but Herzog, 70, turned the team down last
month saying he was too old and his presence would be unfair to
Kerrigan.
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